


The boys

by Fangirlll



Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27334519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlll/pseuds/Fangirlll
Summary: Hughie's life seems to be going pretty good after everything that has happened to him untill trouble comes knockingWell actually breaks in
Relationships: Billy Butcher/Hughie Campbell
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more chapters soon 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy ❤

The sun shined warm and soft on hughies face through the open window and waked him up, nice change from the rats and roaches in the broom closet that used to be his home he thought.

Every day that he gets to wake up in his small but clean apartment and go to his completely legal job is a good day for him.

Doesn’t matter how hard his job is or that he hardly has time to do anything else, as long as that horrible nightmare is over.

Being wanted is not half as cool as they make it up to be on TV. They always show you guns and car chases and secrets knocks but what they don’t show you is how fucking boring it can be sometimes Being locked up with a bunch of super weird people with whom you have absolutely nothing in common.

even if you like the motherfuckers which he did, it's still nerve-racking. 

So he got up, took a proper shower, brushed his teeth with sanitary water and headed out to work. Everyone there was always busy and moving, sometimes he would get flashbacks of frenchies friends packing drugs or mm researching stuff when he was mindlessly looking around but a light shake of his head would always bring Hughie back to the new reality. 

Hours past faster than they ever have in hughies life and another day was over just like that. No blood, no bodies, nothing. An smiles appeared on his face, life was good again. Having said goodbye to all his nice coworkers he decided to walk home. now that he was eating again he needed the exercise. 

His sense of adventure made him buy some kind of Indian food from a cart near his building, he was finally going to finish game of thrones so why not with this?

He went up the stairs two at a time to get to his place at the third floor humming his favourite Billy Joel song happily to himself, it stopped after he opened the door and saw a man wearing a dirty trench coat sitting on his expensive new chair. " 'ello mate, you miss me?" 

"Jesus butcher What the fuck are you doing here?" 

Billy pretender to be offended by the comment "wha' ? No hugs?" 

Hughie stepped inside and closed the door behind him, anxiety rushed trough every part of his being. Butcher seemed...stable...at least for now.

Hughie had no idea what happened to him after becca died, how Billy dealt with that but he was sure it wasn't healthy. 

"butcher I just got my life together, please don't ruin it" 

"C'mon hughie, I know you missed it." He gave the boy an ominous smile making him shiver from the inside 

"No I fuckig haven't." 

That was what he truly thought so why did it feel like a lie? 

"You brought reinforcement i see, great. It's gonna be long night" butcher was staring at the food in his hand with the same evil smile. 

Hughie sighed, there was no point in arguing with billy. He always got what he wanted beside he was worried about the man. As much as he didn't want to know what new troubles billy had brought on to his doorstep he really needed to know how he was doing. 

Hughie set two plates at the table, butcher didn't wait to he invited. The food was actually not that bad.

"How did you find me anyway?"

"I'm retired son I ain't dead. I heard you're working with that cunt neuman " 

"You heard? From who? Last I check none of the boys knew where you were or what you were doing. You didn't answer our calls or anything" 

"Well I'm here now ain't I? And I have big news. Ya gonna love it " 

Hughie knew he wouldn't but let him go on

"So there i was one day, minding me own God dam business...." 

"Bullshit"

he didn't mean to say that outloud, it just slipped. Butcher seemed unfazed 

"Alrigh' I was doing some diggin' for the CIA..." 

Hughie listened patiently to what the man had to say which was basically a bunch of names he'd never heard, some not so hopeful leads and alot of swearing. 

"Well that's all great but I don't do that anymore, and I thought you wanted to retire?" 

"Yeah turns out I ain't the retiring type after all." 

Hughie didn't attempt to act shocked. The knock on the door however did take him by surprise. 

Butcher stood up before he could and opened the door after making sure the right people were behind it. 

Frenchie and Kimiko both gave hughie warm hugs, he was happy to see them but to be honest not in his apartment. 

Kimiko signed something that Frenchie translated as "nice place" he gave them an smile and mentally said goodbye to everything he had made for himself in the last few month.

Butcher went over everything again for them, they talked for a while about a probable plan. It was hard without mm as he was usually the one who did the research and a big part of planning. Still, hughie was happy that he gets to stay with his girls for now. 

It was getting late and they didn't seem to want to leave. Hughie gave his bed to Kimiko who generously took Frenchie in with her, his apartment being designed for the lonely man that he was the only place left was the cauch. 

He looked at it doubtedly and then looked at butcher.

"The dinner wasn't that good luv" butcher said then grabbed a cushion and laid on the carpet with his back to hughie and his cauch. He pulled his trench coat on himself as a blanket which made hughie feel bad. After all butcher was a guest at his house. So he waited till he could hear Billy's heavy breath/snore and softly put his blanked on the now finally calmed man. 

He went back to his cauch having to hug the remaining cushions for warmth. Sometimes he forgot that the man in front of him was well actually just a man. Everyone seems to forget, even Billy himself. 

He could get cold, sick, tired, hungry like the rest of them. A man with No super strength or super speed or any super abilities of sort who somehow everyone, even supes feared and admired. 

Feeling too tried to overthink about what this man had planned for him hughie gave in to the calmness of sleep. 

The next day he woke up to the fresh smell of coffee and to his surprise wrapped up in a warm blanket.


	2. Chapter 2

Butcher told him to take a few days off from work and he made sure to tell him that when hughie was all ready to go to work just to mess with the guy. It balanced things out.

Hughie decided to give the boys a few days and see what they can find. He still believed working with nueman could make a bigger difference but he didn't have the heart to say no to them. Well to him ... 

Hughie had stock to his plan of living on his own and he had done a pretty good job at that. he did call and text butcher a few times in the last couple of month to see how he was doing and gave up when there was no answer or reply. So he decided to leave it alone and mind his own business, but now that the guy actually showed up on his doorstep and asked for help, in his special was, how could he refuse? 

Before he knew it hughie was back in the old rusty van with his favourite maniacs, he tried calling annie to tell her what butcher had found, no answer again. He understood that she was busy and vought was watching her all the time but still a text or a phone call would have been nice. 

He looked out the window of the moving car, the traffic was twice as usual both on the street and the side walk. Ofcourse he had forgotten that Christmas was right around the corner. The work was too much

He saw people laughing and shopping out there then turned his head around to find butcher cleaning his gun and Frenchie smoking a joint while driving. An idea, a really stupid one came to his head. He said it without thinking "hey guys, how about we do secret Santa?" 

There was a moment of silence and then the other men burst into cruel laughter.

Times like this he missed mm. Kimiko gave him a confused look so he explained the concept to her. She got up, found a pen and some paper after messing around all of mm's stuff. He would've have a heart attack if he saw this. 

She wrote the frist letter of everyone's name on a piece of paper, fold each one neatly and shuffled them in her hands. 

The frist one to pick was butcher. Kimiko held the papers aggressively in front of his face, he continued cleaning his gun unbothered.

She paused a moment, then picked one of the papers herself and shoved in Billy's pocket with much more force than required and moved on to hughie. He picked one with the biggest smile on his face that unfortunately didn't last long. There was a big B written on his paper which ment whatever gift he bought would be severely underappreciated if even accepted. But it was his own brilliant fucking idea so he had to stick with it. 

"We're here" frenchie said as he pulled over. hughie didn't exactly know where "here" was, he went with it anyway. 

Butcher, finally done with the gun in his hand offered it to hughie

"Umm no thanks, I don't feel comfortable carrying a gun" 

"Take the gun or you ain't comin' outta the van" 

He looked dead serious. Hughie took the gun, made sure the safety was on and put it where he always saw butcher put his. It felt weird and uncomfortable. 

They all got out and went to what looked alot like the place hughie frist met Frenchie in. old, dirty and definitely suspicious. 

Butcher let Frenchie go in frist and kimiko followed, he stopped hughie from going after her and signed the boy to stay behind him.

The place seemed empty and abandoned, butcher thought he must have found the wrong place or something untill Frenchie told him to come see the hidden backroom he just found. 

It was an small poorly lit room filled with boxes and the walls were covered with maps, post it notes and pictures. 

Most of the boxes were filled with files and the others contain some weird looking weapons that none of them had ever seen before. 

"We finally hit jackpot boys" butcher said with a sinister smile. 

Hughie took out one of the files and started reading. It was about a supe called the doofer, literally everything there was to know about the guy was on that file. Where he was born, when did his powers frist started showing, his home address, everything. but the most important part was on the last page. There was a picture of one of the weapons hughie saw in the other box and a note underneath it saying: deadly. 

"Holy fuck butcher what is all of this?"

"This is how we end vaught" 

They loaded the boxes into the van, it took up almost all of the space in the back so butcher joined hughie and Frenchie in the front seat. Hughie wanted explanations like how did he knew those boxes were there or who made those weapons but Frist thing he had to do was go through them and make sure Annie's file isn't in there. He did not want butcher walking around with an annie killing weapon in his hands. 

Frenchie didn't take them back to hughies apartment which was kind of a relief. It was yet another disgusting hide out. They stayed up all night going through the files. There was a file on almost every supe hughie had ever heard of and so many more that he hadn't. Unfortunately alot of them were unfinished or inconclusive. Whoever put together all of that like them, had no idea how to kill homelander or queen Maeve. 

It was almost sunrise when they decided to go to bed. well Frenchie and Kimiko got a bed, butcher and hughie each took a big ugly chair and collapsed in it. 

Hughie was relieved there were no files on annie in the pile but the whole thing still worried himself sick 

"So are you finally gonna tell me the truth?" 

"What' truth?" Butcher sounded tired and grumpy 

"About all this? If you were really working with the cia why aren't they here to get these files? I think they'll find this stuff pretty useful" 

"Jesus fuckin' christ hughie shut up and let me sleep" 

"butcher where have you been all this time? I called, I texted a few times.... after what happened... after Becca.... you shouldn't have gone alone" 

"Hughie, shut up" butcher had death glares that used to terrify him but Apparently pissed off hugie wasn't afraid of getting punched... or killed.

"I know it wasn't easy for you, I know how losing someone you love feels and that you want revenge but this is dangerous. Going after supes like this? It's fucking suicide. I won't let you do it" 

"And how you gonna stop me?" 

"So you ARE going after them. Investigating for the cia was just another lie then right?" 

There was no response ....

"There is a better way for fighting vaught and the supes butcher, a way that doesn't include living in dumps like this or being number one wanted in the country or smuggling guns for gas money."

....

"You just have to choose to do it right, you won't survive it this way. None of us will survive this." 

.....

"Do you even care? About any of us?" he didn't mean to shout but the lack of sleep and honesty was messing with his head

"If you're so fucking afraid hugie you can just fuck off" butcher said calmly which was not what hughie expected, he was expecting shouting and swearing he even saw a punch coming when he mentioned Becca but this was too cold, even for Billy butcher. 

"I don't know why you even came to me in the frist place but I can't do this.... I can't just sit here and watch you get us all killed." He stood up, butcher looked at him but didn't say anything. Hughie felt the urge to punch him, he would do it if he thought it would change anything or make any of them feel better. He wasn't sure butcher even felt anything anymore. 

It was always about Becca with him, even after she rejected him, even after she died. He looked at billy one more time, waiting for a last minute miracle. Something, anything to show that him being there actually ment something bo the man. All he received was silence.

He was done hanging on to people who didn't want him. His mom, butcher, even annie lately. His real life was back home waiting for him, where people actually noticed his existence. so without saying anything else, he left. 

"Fuck me" butcher heard himself saying. Fuck him honestly for being the dick that he was. For not being able to say everything he needed to say and the boy needed to hear. 

That ofcourse he cared, that after what happened to Becca he was afraid for him all the time to the point where he followed hughie around when he could and had one of the Mallory's men follow him when he couldn't. It was probably a good thing that he didn't tell him he hacked his phone just to be sure. 

That he was going out of his god damn mind with pain and rage and that he needed hughie around to feel like a person again. That he fought so hard not to come back and not to fuck his life up again like he did but couldn't. 

Fuck Billy for coming back his life and fuck Billy for letting him go. 

Hughie found his way back to his place, he went up the stairs with extreme difficulty this time. That's what billy butcher does to you he thought.

He went in ready to hug his big bed that a sound from the kitchen made him jump out of his skin. He remembered that he still had butcher's gun with him. Pulling the gun out and summoning his courage to shoot he went towards the sound. 

the gun almost dropped from his hand when homelander said " that's cute but it won't help you I'm afraid"


	3. Chapter 3

Hughie helplessly held on to his gun.

Homelander smirked at him "You know I can split that thing in half with my hands, won't be that different from snapping someone's neck." 

Hughie imagined homelander's hands around his neck and a similar feeling of suffocating creeped onto him as if he was back in belive expo being held under water fearing if he'll ever breath again. 

Although he knew bullets couldn't do him any good in this situation, he thought atleast it could save him some dignity. 

"What do you want?" Hughie's voice was shaky despite his best efforts. 

"What I want hughie is to pull your spine out the back of your neck." The fact that he was calmly walking around the kitchen checking out hughie's plants as he said it made it that much horrific. 

he stood close and looked hughie in the eyes " But I'm not gonna do that just yet." He took the gun from his hand and mindlessly through it away. Hearing hughie's heart beating like a scared rabbit put an smile on his face.

He pushed the boy towards the living room window and out the fire escape. Hughie's mind imagined every horrible scenarios possible but what happened next was worse that all of them. 

He saw homelander's hand coming at him and he was waiting to be pushed off the stairs but instead the man grabbed him like carry on and jumped up to the sky. It took hughie's mind a few second to comprehend what was happening and for the fear to kick in. Too afraid to even scream he kept his eyes shut waiting for it to be over. 

A few minutes later he felt like it was slowing down then he was thrown on the ground. He opened his eyes slowly, homelander was standing above him in his usual majestic pose. 

"I never get what starlight sees in you" he had a disgusted look on his face as he glanced over the boy 

"What do you want" hughie asked again 

"I want to make things right, I'm goin to destroy everyone who stood in my way. Starting with weakest link."

..........................................

Butcher couldn't sleep now, He had too much self loathing in his mind to rest besides The sun was already up so he didn't really see the point of sleeping. 

"I should go" he thought. Coming back was a huge mistake that would only mess with his plan. He decided to put the boxes back in the van and take off before Frenchie wakes up. 

If only he could find his damn keys, he went through all his pockets and found them in the last one along side something else. The piece of paper Kimiko had shoved in there was still unopened in his pocket. He wanted the throw it out but his curiosity wouldn't let him. 

Billy angrily unfolded the paper, the big H written on it softened his expression.

After everything he had done hughie still wanted to make him happy and the piece of shit that he was let the boy down once again. Starlight was right, hughie was too good for him.

When billy was down on his luck looking for a way to destroy vaught, when he fucked that up, even when becca didn't want him. Hughie was there for him.

He needed his canary,he knew that. Hughie was the only one who could save, who could keep him from going too far. It was always him. But if he knew only one thing about loving someone was that you couldn't be selfish in it. 

Butcher may not have deserved him but He deserved a proper goodbye. 

This time forever. 

One last goodbye, then butcher could disappear from the face of the earth. 

.......................................

Hughie took a look around, everything felt familiar then it hit him. This is the same woods where Becca died and for homelander this is the place where he lost his son and the only woman who could have possibly ever loved him. 

Homelander's calm face now had turned deranged, hate was dripping from his eyes as looked at the guy sitting helplessly on the ground in front of him. 

The thought of everything he could do to him caused a tingling feeling all over his body. 

"You and your fucking friends destroyed everything. Now I have to watch that little whore walk around MY TOWER when the woman who deserved to be there is dead." Words were spitting out of his mouth "I am going to enjoy killing you hughie and then I'm going to kill that bitch and all your friends one by one. You think you can defeat me? I'm the most powerful man in the world NOBODY CAN DEFEAT ME" 

His eyes were burning red, hughie felt the blood freezing in his body. Homlander took a deep breath making his eyes change back to their original blue. 

"I could kill you with a blink of an eye, but come on now, where's the fun in that?" 

He took the boy by the collar of his shirt forcing him on his feet then punching him back to the ground. He did the same thing again this time throwing hughie about five feet back. 

Th warm feeling on hughies face indicated blood, he was sure homelander was holding back as much as he could to make it last longer.

If he was going to die then he decided to atleast say whatever the fuck he wanted 

"You can kill me now, but you'll never win" he tried to be brave one last time "They will never let you win. Sooner or later everyone will find out what a fucking monster you are. You're not a hero, you never were. You're just a villain who's running out of time." 

With that hughie was thrown again this time further, landing on his arm. he felt a sharp pain going to his core as he started to question his decision. 

He was pulling himself back together trying to stand up when another hit, this time to his ribs, made him fall back where he was. 

"Where are your friends now?" He mockingly looked around "I've been keeping an eye in you these past few month. They all left you, they. all. left. Even starlight. But you stupid fuck, you're still loyal to tham. Still think YOU can make a fucking difference." 

Hughie had a hard time focusing on homelander's words through his probably broken ribs and hearing Annie's name just added to the pain. 

"Nobody gives a shit about you" homelander went through hughie's pockets to get his phone like he was already dead. He called Annie's number and put it on speaker.

Every unanswered beep was as painful as one of homelander's punches.

It was over 

No second wind.

"But don't worry, really soon they will all join you." 

Homelander's eyes started glowing again

"Any last words?" 

Hughie looked at him 

It was like looking at a bullet shot at you in slow motion. 

When you're face to face with the thing that's going to end your life, what do you do then? 

It that moment, that precious last moment?

Do you pray? Well no god was coming to save him 

Do you reminisce love? Family? 

Your dad?

Your dead girlfriend? 

The one that got away?

Somehow all he could think of was a man in a long coat telling him not to forget his second wind. 

He closed his eyes, humming Billie Joel maybe for the last time when he heard a voice " hands off my canary cunt" 

Eyes shut open he saw a man in a long coat coming towards him holding a weapon instead of a harmonica. 

There he was 

His second wind.


End file.
